Mike D of the Beastie Boys has called him “the furniture pimp.” He co-owned the influential 1990s Tribeca design store Form and Function along with Fred Schneider of the B-52s, and he was one of the masterminds behind the flawless 1970s interiors in the movie The Ice Storm. Today his interior-design clients range from titans of industry to Rihanna’s stylist, Mel Ottenberg. But when powerHouse Books approached Jim Walrod about writing a design tome, Walrod said he couldn’t think of anything more “boring.”

Instead, Walrod, as legendary a conversationalist and consumer of information as he is a midcentury design authority, decided to publish a cross-section of the strange and “useless” pop-culture facts he has collected over the years. Did you know, for instance, that Steve Buscemi was a firefighter in the early 1980s with Engine Company No. 55 in Little Italy? Or that the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles, the world’s first circular office building, features a blinking light atop it that has spelled out “Hollywood” in Morse code since it opened in 1956? Probably not, but Jim Walrod knew. Here are fifteen more scintillating factoids from Walrod’s sponge of a brain, recently published in his new book, I Knew Jim Knew.

1. The strange two-story building at 496 Broome Street in SoHo was John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s downtown home. If you climb on the railing and peek in the window, you can still see their belongings.

2. Artist Ross Bleckner was the landlord of the Mudd Club in downtown Manhattan. Musician Brian Eno was a tenant on the second floor, and artist David Salle was on the third.

3. At the height of his career, Marvin Gaye met with the head coach of the Detroit Lions to discuss his playing for the team.

4. Gregory Peck’s office in the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit features two of the rarest MoMA Good Design lighting-competition lamps made by Heifetz. They are virtually impossible to find.

5. At the age of 93, architect Philip Johnson designed a DJ booth and dance pavilion for MoMA’s PS1, and he spun records at the opening party!

6. Super-picker Robert Loughlin once found a Salvador Dalí portrait at the Salvation Army on Spring Street in 1994. He bought the painting for $40, and it later sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $78,000.

7. In 1966 Liberace opened Liberace Interiors in West Hollywood. He even offered interior-design services to his clients.

8. John Malkovich has stated that his favorite moment in his theater career at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre was giving acting lessons to Mr. T.

9. Japanese-American master craftsman George Nakashima was a major tiki-restaurant designer. He created furniture for the legendary Trader Vic’s tiki bar in San Francisco, the Mauna Loa in Detroit, and all the Kon Tiki/Ports o’ Call restaurants.

10. Writer Glenn O’Brien is the underwear model for the inside cover of the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers. Andy Warhol took the photograph.

11. In 1999 Tom Sachs got his gallerist, Mary Boone, arrested for unlawful distribution of ammunition, possession of unlawful weapons, and resisting arrest. Sachs landed her in trouble with his Alvar Aalto glass vase filled with live bullets, which were given away as party favors in Hermès-style airsick baggies, and a gun cabinet, called Ace Boone Coon, stocked with his signature homemade handguns.

12. In 1979 cartoon/graffiti-based artist Kenny Scharf had his first solo exhibition at Fiorucci, titled “Fiorucci Celebrates the New Wave,” and it included a performance by New Wave opera singer Klaus Nomi. Inspired by Scharf’s success, Jean-Michel Basquiat tried to get a similar deal, but showed up high for his big interview and was asked to leave the store after a series of unfortunate events.

13. The floors of the large room of the A.P.C. store on Mercer Street in New York City are wide unfinished planks of undulating wood, left behind by Julian Schnabel, whose studio used to be there.

14. Andy Warhol once stood in the window of Fiorucci with 50 Warhol impersonators. They all signed copies of his Interview magazine as “Andy Warhol.”

15. Rob Zombie was the first delivery guy for Two Boots pizzeria, which opened in New York City in 1987.